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Obama Scales Back Budget Goals

President Barack Obama's budget takes new steps toward overhauling the business tax system, even as it also proposes hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes on the wealthy and businesses to offset federal spending and trim deficits. Photo: Getty Images.

WASHINGTON—The White House offered a tax and spending plan Tuesday that was largely absent of lofty new policy goals, acknowledging the limited ambition of both political parties to renew a fight over the budget with midterm elections looming.

President Barack Obama's $3.9 trillion budget for the year beginning Oct. 1 focused on targeted measures, many of which have been previously proposed, including tax increases on upper-income Americans and companies such as oil and gas concerns. It also called for spending increases...